Pathogenic microorganisms which are present in the living environment have been considerably overcome due to a high development in medical service and progress in therapy in recent years, particularly inventions and developments in antibacterial and antibiotics and, moreover, due to an improvement in hygiene. However, once they break out, big damage and fatal problems may result, and thus pathogenic microorganisms remain causes of big problems.
Examples of the pathogenic microorganisms which cause troubles when present around us are those causing food poisoning and those resistant to antibiotics, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the like. Thus, there are problems such as the occurrence of a lot of patients infected by these microorganisms, and hospital infection as well.
Taking food and beverage or the "eating" action is essential for animals including human beings and, therefore, in spite of progress in science and high development in technique in recent years, it is still difficult to completely prevent "food poisoning" caused by taking food and beverage. On the other hand, prevention of food poisoning as such has been more and more important because of the Product Liability Law which has been inaugurated recently.
Food poisoning is roughly classified into three types depending upon its cause, i.e. that by natural poison (toxin) (such as swellfish poison (Tetraodontidae toxin) and mushroom poison), that by putrefaction of food and beverage (such as by decomposed products of food and beverage), and that by contamination by or proliferation of bacteria (such as Staphylococcus, Salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) in food and beverage. Among them, food poisoning by natural poison can be easily avoided by preventing the intake of food/beverage containing the causing poison. In addition, detection of putrefaction of food/beverage by means of checking the changes in appearance, smell, etc. is usually easy. Therefore, prevention of food poisoning due to putrefaction of food/beverage is relatively easy in many cases.
In contrast to those two types of food poisoning, contamination by or proliferation of the microorganisms is usually invisible in the case of food poisoning by bacteria (that is, the bacterial food poisoning) and, moreover, detection of this contamination or proliferation is very difficult without participation of professional people. Accordingly, the bacterial food poisoning is a food poisoning which is most difficult to avoid.
Occurrence of food poisoning associated restaurants, caterers for luncheon and feeding facilities affects are significantly many people and, in addition, the symptoms is serious such as severe vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, high fever, etc., whereby it is apt to result in a particularly serious problem such as stoppage of business of the food provider for a long term. A further problem is that, since the microorganism causing such food poisoning produces toxic substances such as enterotoxin in the body of infected patients, it is necessary to conduct a therapy after infection and, moreover, this therapy is very often accompanied by a difficulty.
Accordingly, it is quite necessary that the microorganism which is a cause of such a symptom is found at an early stage and that a preventive measure such as disinfection is conducted for preventing the poisoning.
As a result of the use of antibacterials and antibiotics, occurrence of diseases, especially infectious diseases such as contagious disease, has significantly decreased. On the other hand, however, many resistant microorganisms have appeared as a secondary phenomenon resulting in a big problem. There is a problem that, when a powerful antibiotic substance is developed, resistance thereto occurs immediately and, in addition, hospital infection by such resistant microorganisms have become a big problem too. Since patients including those suffering from severe disease and aged people has an decreased resistance, microorganisms which are resistant to antibiotics cause a intractable infectious disease whereby, even when the infection is found, there will be no effective therapy and that is a big problem. For preventing the hospital infection caused by such resistant microorganisms, it is necessary to specify the causing microorganism in an early stage of infection, to find its presence at an early date and to effectively and appropriately prevent the infection by means of disinfection, etc. Accordingly, it is necessary for hospitals to periodically check whether such microorganisms appear in the medical environment.
Up to now, there has been no method other than common preventing measures (such as keeping the cooking utensils, e.g. kitchen knife and chopping board, clean and also keeping hand and fingers of the persons participating in cooking clean) for preventing the food poisoning. Even at present, when food poisoning occurs, only an ex posto facto measure (i.e. the causing microorganism is detected and confirmed by a search (by incubation of the suspected microorganism found in the food/beverage) of the public health center controlling the place where the poisoning occurred) is available. In addition, detection and confirmation of the causing microorganism by the center as such usually require quite a long period (e.g., around one to two weeks). Further, the search by the public health center needs a "prescribed procedure" and, moreover, in view of honor or reputation (such as an entire loss of customers by "rumor"), such a procedure is not always fully activated. Additionally, it is not always possible to detect and confirm the causing microorganism so simply.
In the investigation at the professional organizations such as public health centers and hospitals, a method which has been adopted is that various samples as mentioned above and those collected from patients and from a medical environment are incubated on agar plates using a selective medium, and the colonies formed on the medium are observed by the naked eye, or the microorganism incubated as such is confirmed by other detecting and confirming measures. Recently, a judging method using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been adopted as well. However, the operations are troublesome in all of such conventional methods and, in judging the colonies grown on the agar medium, professional technique and skillfulness are needed for identification. In addition, professional technique and skillfulness as well as specific devices or the like are required for the operations from collection of the sample to its incubation and there is a disadvantage that total cost for the detection is high. Further, in the case of a method utilizing a PCR, it is again necessary to apply professional technique and skillfulness and there is another problem that, for certain microorganisms, discrimination of them from nonpathogenic ones is very difficult.
For a device for solving these problems, an apparatus accommodating a liquid medium enclosed in a capsule and a tampon for collecting microorganisms in a capsule-container is proposed, for example, in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication Sho 62-171671 (JP Sho 62-171671 A). Because such an apparatus contains pathogenic microorganisms after incubation, however, it is difficult to discard it. Therefore, in the prior art the used apparatus has been discarded after disinfecting steps, including opening the used container followed by addition of a disinfectant solution to the medium containing the microorganisms.
Because the apparatus has been brought into an open system, for example, by taking off a stopper, etc., in oder to discard the incubation system containing the pathogenic microorganisms, such a treatment is not only troublesome and risky but also requires professional technique and great skill, even installations. Furthermore, since, in addition to the container for incubation, it is always necessary to prepare a disinfectant solution for the treatment, it is troublesome in view of portability and convenience in use.